How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Samrat Upadhyay's website.
I settled on the title Darkmotherland fairly early in the process, and the title didn’t change even though the novel went through numerous drafts.
This is not my standard writing process. Normally, I have a working title that changes later when I have a firmer sense of what the novel is about. But in Darkmotherland, the name of this dystopia came to me early on, and it felt very right. It’s a combination of Darkmother, a prophetic figure in the novel, and Motherland, which evokes old-timey patriotism and nationalism.
Darkmotherland is not only a place but also a character, a mythical reverse-Shangrila. It holds the major characters in a grip they cannot escape.
What's in a name?
Character names are important to me either in their symbolism or...[read on]
Writers Read: Samrat Upadhyay (August 2010).
The Page 69 Test: Buddha’s Orphans.
The Page 69 Test: Darkmotherland.
Q&A with Samrat Upadhyay.
--Marshal Zeringue
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